Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-06-01

~ stsSe Of our country. See then
-nem me mi ners' camps in those far
on fsUons where loom the mountains 81
s.st soo gold, to the land Of flowers vatched
y .ne lone bees in tsopic seas; from Llano
Essacado Of the Lone Star S,ate. - ~
green hills and white cottages Ana varm
nres'des Of Maine, they come, the veterans
come. Men women and children, in gala
azure. are With and about them. See the
professions form! One BY one mot q once shsv
oio. ous nov inhrn,, they fall in line. Within
tneir hands they hold, not ~ once they did the
oeaoiy instruments Of var, but vresths of
blooming flowers. The air 10 resonant i'd
the trill OF music TO the times at,uued. A.
the ougie's call. with measured step they
move toward the holy precincts wher. lie the
Nations dead Through the narrov sa,es
.ney pass. flushed ia the voice; all are in.
,ent; With uncovered heads, and BY tender
nand' those norai gifts are laid upon those
sacred mounds. There lies . fathers below
ed form; there q brother's; there a sons
comrades all. To zach 10 paid the precious
tribute designed for ALL None are neglected
And now, when those sacred rites are over.
with wandering step and slow" the living
depart from the earthly abodes of the dead.
But not alone to leave them. No, not alone
Tor sweetiy they rest in the soft embrace Of
their mother earth. and whispering peace to
their slum bers,
The light wings Of Zephyr oppressed with perfume.
WAX faint Ger the Earlands epcreing their tombs"
and throughout the eternity OF years. 10 di
urnal succession, the sun in his glory .hall
come from the realms Of rosy bosomed Dawn,
ana the stars shall come out from their
eternal solitudes and kiss their graves morn.
ing. noon and eve, in endless turn, forever
and forever.
l have said that this day is known to the
law as a on-judclal day. But it is by the
laws OF the State alone that this recognition
Is gwen. The statutes of the nation are pain
fully silent on the subject. Memorial day"
are not words found in the index to those pom.
derous volumes. Nor does it End distinction
by proclamation, like Thanksgiving day. 81.
lent, silent, too silent. But by the unwrit-
ten law, which is often more exacting than
the written law, this day has become a great
festival of our people. What, then, are great
national festivals? What are their func-
tons! what is their origin and how long
perpetuated? As tides and currents are to the
ocean, so are recurring festivals to q nation.
The movement extends to the lowest depths.
The electric current of patriotism charges
the people in en- masse. They become large.
ly by its assistance one homogeneous whole.
"A fellow-feeling makes US wondrous kind"
We know each other without an introduction
Whomsoever we meet is our neighbor, and
he comes in with Us and sups with Us and We
with him. No matter in what foreign
land the fates, the cares or pleasures of life,
may cast or call us we feel the spell of our
country's festal day. From its swirl of
emotions in millions of brave hearts on these
great days, arise and 10 established the senti-
ment of patriotism. great national character.
And this pervasive sentiment, common to .
people, once firmly fixed, raises a rampant
between that people and other people
mightier than mountain barriers, rolling
rivers, on surging seas.
His trusty warriors few but undismayed.'
1t changes not at the call of solemn treaties,
or the decree of iron despotism. All, no
The sun of Austerlitz still rises radiant aud
glorious to the left bank of the Rhine in
Alsace and Lorraine. So long as = national
spirit, national energy, national life exist
it shall manifest itself on her festal days.
Az, after the national heart shall cease to
beat, here the feeble pulse may discerned.
The Feast of the Passover, the Paschal
Lamb, the Pentecost assert the nationality
of the Jews . thousand wears after their
dispersion. and they were wandering exiles
on the face OF the earth, with no country they
could call their own. The Olympic games,
Pythian and Isthmian games, were to Greece
great national schools of manly emulation
and patriotism. Those festival occasions
had such hold On all Greece as no other in
stitution had. 1t was here that Eschylus
aud Euripides contended for civic crowns,
the Father Of History rehearsed his charming
narrative, Cimon's mar. 8 won immortal fame
and Alcibiades ran fierce his chariots first to
the glittering goal. No longer are her
chariot wheels heard laundering along at the
Stadium;
1.-THE Isles Of Greece, the Isles of Greece,
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts OF war and peace,
Where Delos roar and Ph9bus sprung"
are but themes of the poets song.
No more, ne more;
And liberty from Greece withdrew,
And DER the Adriatc hew.
But no longer in the Seven Killed city does
the image of the she-wolf nurse the ideal of
great people a. its prototype had nursed
the rugged infancy of its twin founders.
No longer is the grotto on the Palatine
Hill sacred to Lycean Pan. The last shout
of joy heard for : thousand years at the
Lupercalia has died away in echoes
faint repeating across the waters
more. o mother of dead empires!
-
Childless and crownless IN her vsieeless woe.
An empty urn within her Withered hands,
Whose holy dust was scattered long age"
Let rs not then hold too lightly eur great
festivals. They are . part and . most signid-
cant part Of our national existence. Civiliza-
ton has never yet lighted her fires on this
earth unless famed by the breezes of excite
ment in the festivals Of the people whom she
came dswn from heaven to bless. The A..
syrians, the Egyptians, the ancient Mexicans
and Peruvians felt alike the glow of the
magic spell. Homer and Hesiod and Virgil
sang in their sweetest accents of the games
and festivals of their primitive peoples.
Certain it is that these holidays. holy days,
dies fasti, sprung from the ashes of the great
Get events. Events from which the greatest
OF national blessings flow; events the tradi.
ton of which, the recollection of which move
the people to profoundest sympathy.
The speaker here referred to Christmas,
Thanksgiving Day and the Fourth of July
and said:
Last but not least of our great national fes-
tivities, is the day We celebrate. 1t comes to
US as to the mother her child comes with the
pains Of labor. A million warriors around
their stacked arms stand its godfathers The